Sea of Thieves – The Lowdown on Launch Stream Highlights

With Sea of Thieves launching just around the corner, Rare hosted a stream today with the purpose of preparing all the pirates that will soon be getting their hands on the game. The stream is now archived and available to watch here. If you don’t happen to have an hour to watch it right now, but dying to know what was covered, here are some of the highlights from the stream:

Everything you need to know about Sea of Thieves

Players are given the freedom to explore rich shared world

Set sail in sloop as solo player or duo or grab a galleon for a three to four person crew

Play with your friends or use matchmaking to find a crew

Game is crossplay between Xbox One and Windows 10 PC players

Lower sails and raise anchor to set sail. Angle sails to catch wind for extra speed

Use the Infinite Pirate Generator to choose your pirate character model

The world is segmented into three distinct areas, The Shores of Plenty, Ancient Isle and The Wilds. Each of these different areas of the map have a different look and feel

Trading Companies include Gold Hoarders, Merchant Alliance and Order of Souls

Gold Hoarders give you quests to find treasure chests to sell back to them

Merchant Alliance is a trading company tasking you with quests to carry resources and cargo across the Sea of Thievs

Order of Souls task players with hunting down Skeleton Captains and challenging your combat skills

Each of these Trading Companies grant gold for completing their tasks but also experience towards progression in each Trading Company

Customize your player with different weapons and item skins

Customize your ship as well from figureheads to sails

Pirate Legends are players who have proven themselves with the three Trading Companies by building reputation with each

Every other ship you see on the horizon is another player controlled ship

The Merchant Alliance was brand new in the Final Beta. The mechanics of the wildlife that is used for the quests given by the Merchant Alliance is still being expanded upon

Snakes will spit poison so you can use the snakes to guard your treasure

Skeleton Forts can be occupied and when they are occupied there is treasure to be looted

Players will know if a fort is occupied because a huge skull shaped cloud will be hovering above

Once you clear the fort you will gain a key that will open the vault filled with treasure

The empty vault bug from the Final Beta is fixed and will not be in the game come launch

The studio is buzzing with adrenaline of launch finally happening but at the same time there is a feeling of this is just the start

New types of skeleton captains will be in the game. Expect gold skeletons and shadow skeletons. These are new addition to the regular bone skeletons

The gold skeletons are heavy, slow to move and force players to play in a different way. Water can rust the gold skeleton and slow them down for easy attacks

Shadow skeletons at night are more powerful than during the day. During the day the shadow skeletons are easier to defeat. You can use your lantern on the shadow skeleton if you don’t want to wait until day time.

Shanty books are placed around the world that have lyrics to some of the songs you can play with your instruments

Tomorrow the Launch Trailer should be released

Friday there is a reddit AMA

Quest for Golden Bananas starts on Friday as well

On Monday, the day before launch, Rare will be releasing something that they could have only dreamed of before. No hints to what exactly so be sure to check that out

Being able to save a pirate from the 8 randomly generated is possible now. If you are looking for that perfect pirate and want to see more but don’t want to lose one you really like, you can put that pirate spot on hold and generate 7 new ones while keeping the one you do like

Respawn system where a crew’s ship is sunk and the crew keep spawning by mermaid near the sunken ship is being fixed to prevent spawn killing

Post launch, Rare will be giving players more options in how players invite and start lobbies with friends

Rare is thinking about the tone and humor of pets in the game. They didn’t just want to throw them in there but really think about how they can be implemented to bring crews together

Question and Answer

Q: Is Sea of Thieves crossplay?

A: 100% it is. Crossplay has been active since December of last year

Q: Will we be able to pre-load the game before launch?

A: It should be but double checking to make sure. Will release that informationa s soon as they know

Q: Do I get anything for being in the Alpha and Beta?

A: If you are a Founder for Sea of Thieves, someone who played in the Technical Alpha, stay tuned on Monday for what you can expect

Q: What happens after you become a Legend?

A: You will gain access to new type of voyages and the pirate hideout. New voyages gives new kinds of rewards

Q: Will there be regular competitions between players?

A: This falls under the live campaigns that will be happening through the games lifespan. They present new ways for players to interact with the world and each other

Q: Do galleons customizations get saved?

A: You can purchase customizations yourself and the crew can bring their own pieces to customize their shared ship. You don’t lose them or give them to your crews. They are yours to apply to your shared ship

Q: Will we get Kato as a purchasable pet?

A: There might be an easter egg surrounding Kato

Q: Will Krakens be in the game?

A: Yes, Krakens will be in the game and kind of pose the same threat as storms

Q: Are you going to expand the world after launch?

A: It is being considered. A lot of thought goes into the world like ship encounter frequency and outpost locations. Nothing to confirm but will be keeping an on it

A tease of the launch trailer dropping tomorrow was shown. Kraken!

And those are just some of the highlights. When you have the time, be sure to check out the stream yourself as there is even more great info in there that was shared!